9th June, 2011

DARREN CRONSHAW

Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship

Alan Hirsch and Debra Hirsch

Baker Books/Shapevine, Grand Rapids, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-0801013430

"They untame (our idea of) God, seeing God not in our own image but through a fresh picture of Jesus. Jesus was remarkably accepting of broken and bent people and the Hirschs ask, 'What is it about the holiness of Jesus that caused "sinners" to flock to him like a magnet and yet manages to seriously antagonise the religious people?...Why does our more churchy form of holiness seem to get it the other way around?"

My response to Untamed reminds me of two boys in a fight. Their mum was cooking breakfast and Eddie and Murray fought over who would eat the first pancake. Mum in her loving wisdom saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "Boys, boys", she pleaded, "don’t argue – if Jesus was here He’d say "Let my brother have the first pancake’’. Mum was pleased when Murray’s eyes grew large with understanding. Murray turned to his younger brother and offered, “Eddie...you be Jesus.”

I also tend to turn for a religion that suits me and a way to follow Jesus I choose. But that smooth path turns faith into a consumer product, which like everything else is only good as long as it helps happy living and getting what we want. Untamed is a useful guidebook for the adventure along a different path. Alan and Debra Hirsch tag-team in helping us untame God, culture, self-image and mission.

They untame (our idea of) God, seeing God not in our own image but through a fresh picture of Jesus. Jesus was remarkably accepting of broken and bent people and the Hirschs ask, “What is it about the holiness of Jesus that caused ‘sinners’ to flock to him like a magnet and yet manages to seriously antagonise the religious people?...Why does our more churchy form of holiness seem to get it the other way around?”

They untame our (engagement with) culture and form a Gospel-shaped view of money, status, family and church. They want to celebrate what is good in culture but critique what is dehumanising, especially consumerism that is a serious contender with Biblical faith.

They untame our self-image and sexuality, inviting us to find identity in Christ who loves us. They appeal for a celebration of spirituality (longing to know and be known by God) as well as sexuality (longing to know and be known by people).

And they untame our practice of mission with incarnational practices. They insist all disciples are sent on mission and are to engage with the poor and marginalised.

They appeal for a fresh release of creativity in church and imagining not just different shapes of church but world-changing discipleship, quoting Bono: “Dream up the world you want to live in; dream out loud, at high volume!” This begins often with basic hospitality and sharing our homes and family life. 

Alan and Debra identify obstacles that trip us up on the journey. They rarely hold back in their prophetic critique, whether against prosperity doctrine or ‘theology of the little head’, the church’s marginalisation of women or pharisaical rejection of gays, worshippers coming to 'be fed' or seeker-sensitive churches that don’t disciple, overly pastoral views of church or the debilitating clergy-laity division, the anxiety of Christians to put ‘God’ and ‘orgasm’ in the same sentence or our lack of awareness of the social pornography of women’s magazines, our slowness to confront greed and its violent consequences or our preoccupation with nuclear families and consumerism. For example, they say Santa Claus is "a religious symbol co-opted to disciple children in thoroughgoing materialism from early childhood on".

A strength of the book is this crazy couple’s sharing from their own lives and experiences, from conversion from the drug scene through to inner-city church planting in St Kilda, from taking risks with missional experiments through to training Forge interns in incarnational mission. The book breathes their heart for those on the fringes, their love for the church and their passion for its destiny as a missional movement. They have an obsession to "authentically live out the radical, grace-saturated life of Jesus and become more like the One we love".

I confess I don’t live on the margins of poverty in my city, don’t house-share beyond my nuclear family, and am not church planting among gay gothic church-burning neo-marxists. But reading Untamed challenges me to act out an authentic discipleship. It opens my eyes to the poverty in my own suburb. It motivates me to work passionately to replant our church. And it invites me to discern where God is to be found in my middle-class, inner-suburban, multicultural, university, pub-going, family-raising, career-pursuing, kitchen-renovating neighbourhood.

Darren coordinates leadership training with the Baptist Union of Victoria and pastors Auburn Baptist Church. This review was originally published in Faith and Life, Issue 5 (May 2010) 11.

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